Methods of improving various crops are known. Some of these methods involve introducing foreign, i.e. nonendogenous, DNA into plant cells or tissues and analyzing the resulting plants for presence of exogenous nucleic acid and expression of the foreign gene. Although successful in certain instances, these methods are laborious, time consuming and variable in their reproducibility. There exists a need for the further development of methods for the beneficial genetic transformation of agricultural crops to increase protein yields or otherwise improve crops for human and/or animal consumption.